Free combination flower beds, known to most gardeners as mixborders, are one of the most popular landscape design elements. They are widespread due to the fact that even a novice gardener can form a mixborder of perennials, and it will be possible to enjoy the flowering of your favorite plants in the next few years. The mixborder device of perennials includes several main stages, after completing which you can get a picturesque corner of natural harmony that will perfectly fit any landscape style.
They equip a mixborder of perennials both on the outer and inner boundaries of the site, and along the edges of lawns or along garden paths. Outwardly, such a plant composition resembles a winding wide rabatka, which at first glance consists of chaotically planted green spaces and flowers.
Thanks to the competent combination, taking into account the coloristic combination of plants, their shape and height, the created composition is only admirable
Thinking over the arrangement of a mixborder with your own hands, you need to be based on a number of factors, the main ones of which are:
- The semantic load of the composition. A mixed curb can decorate the porch and front entrance to the site, add special charm to ponds and stairs, and emphasize the breaks of the numerous paths of the site.
- The height of the plants used. The principle of multi-tiered or “ladder” will allow each of the elements of the composition to show its beauty in full, without drowning out each other. Among the variety of plants and flowers for a mixborder, in addition to perennials, you can include bulbous and ground covers, flowering annuals and biennials, as well as cereal grasses and ornamental varieties of conifers and deciduous plants.
- Mixborder viewing angle:
The most common design option for a flower garden is a one-sided mixborder, which ends in tall plants and is most often used when decorating walls and fences.
It is possible to arrange a double-sided mixed border, the borders of which are made of medium or low-growing shrubs and flowers
Thanks to this arrangement of plants, it is convenient to admire the flower garden from any corner of the site.
Wanting to create a flower garden that will attract the eye with lush flowering from the first days of spring to late autumn, it is important to choose plants so that they smoothly replace each other during the flowering process. Cultures placed by free groups, blooming at the same time, will form color spots, smoothly interspersed with the foliage of plants that have already faded, or which are just about to please others with their flowering.
When choosing plants, it is necessary to take into account not only the flowering periods, but also the type of soil, moisture and light. Thanks to the competent selection of crops, the continuous flowering mixborder will have an elegant appearance not only in the flowering season, but even in the winter months, when perennial grasses and evergreen conifers will appear on a snow-white background with bright strokes.
Garden flowerpots with seasonal plants will help to provide an attractive continuously blooming appearance to the flower garden, which during flowering will act as a bright accent in the composition
Step one: planting “skeletal” plants
The basis of any flower garden of a free combination is made up of shrubs – the so-called “skeletal” plants, which set the height of the border and act as its fillers. They are planted at a small, but not equidistant distance from each other so that there is free space between the individual groups. This greatly enlivens the flower garden and allows you to give the composition a more natural look.
Advice! When choosing plants for a mixborder, you need to focus on the volume of an adult plant and its estimated height.
An ideal basis for a mixborder can be evergreen shrubs, the clear favorite among which is boxwood
Dwarf varieties of conifers are well suited as “skeletal” plants: Lawson cypress, conical spruce, Bergman pine, columnar yew, scaly juniper, weeping larch.
Among the most beautifully flowering shrubs that do not grow and do not lose their attractive appearance over the next few years, various varieties of spirea, Meyer’s lilac, cinquefoil and some varieties of mockery can be distinguished
Red-leaved plum, magnolia, jasmine, elderberry, hibiscus, hydrangea and white turf can act as an equally effective addition to compositions that will enrich the picture of a flower garden. However, when planting, it should be borne in mind that these tree crops tend to grow over time, and therefore they should not be planted too close to each other. Timely pruning and rejuvenation of plants will help prolong the flowering of shrubs.
Step two: fill the flower garden with perennials
One of the principles of arranging mixborders is tiering. Therefore, in the foreground, covering the elongated stems of shrubs, medium-sized perennial plants are placed.
When arranging small flower beds, it is better to give preference to long-blooming beauties, for example: lavater, polyglass, coreopsis, echinacea
Decorative foliage crops will also help to dilute the composition. Silvery leaves of cineraria and wormwood look unusually tender against the background of variegated flowers. The decorative foliage of the majestic geranium or the burgundy leaves of tunbergia and heuchera will act as a contrasting background to the bright colors.
Perennial grains are good because they bring bright spots of rich pure color to the composition, the palette of which can be extensive, starting with pale yellow and bronze and ending with burgundy and purple shades
Among medium-sized perennial grasses, the most decorative are feather grass, pearl-barley, sedge, meadow-grass, hare-tail, and ochik.
Step three: we supplement the picture with annuals and bulbs
The variegated annuals, planted in empty “pockets” of perennial plants, will decorate the composition with colorful flowering and give it more elegance and festivity. With the first rays of spring, primroses will awaken: woods, muscari, snowdrops and crocuses.
In place of spring-blooming tulips, daffodils and primroses, summer-people will play with a riot of colors and subsequently pass the flowering baton to autumn-flowering plants. To enhance the decorative effect, annuals should also be planted in small groups. When choosing plants for a flower garden, you should avoid planting aggressive species that are prone to rapid growth of green mass and displacement of neighboring plants.
Bulbous plants planted in small groups will create variegated touches on a still half-naked flower garden
There are a lot of options for ready-made schemes for arranging mixborders. It can be exquisite monochromatic or spectacular multi-colored plant compositions.
Such a complex multi-colored mixborder is based on a harmonious combination and smooth transitions of shades and colors. A contrasting composition will look best on a large outdoor area in the garden.
A colorful yellow-purple mixborder will hide behind it the unattractive walls of buildings and a blank fence. In the background of the composition is a low-growing viburnum (1), oriental poppy (2), Bonar verbena (3) and meadowsweet yarrow (4). The middle tier is occupied by a bush rose (5), Ajax’s larkspur (6) and a foxtail-like pinnacle (7). The foreground is decorated with Pentstemon (8) and aster (9). A variegated pillow at the foot of the mixborder is formed by fragrant tobacco (10), calendula (11), sage (12) and black shaves (13)
The background of the mixborder along the path leading to the house is decorated with a mock-orange (1), paniculate phlox (2) and a peony (3). Lilies (4), ageratum (5), lobularia (6) and carnation (7) act as foreground decorations.
With proper planning and proper arrangement of a flower garden, even an ordinary plant composition can be turned into a real garden decoration.
